Week 4: Crane, The Mechanical Mind, 3rd edition Chapter 13, or 2nd edition Chapter 6.
Focus on the following sections:
'Consciousness, what it’s like and qualia.'
'Consciousness and physicalism'
'The limits of scientific knowledge'
Note that ‘physicalism’ is just a different name for ‘materialism’.
- Here is a reconstruction of the causal argument for materialism:
1 (Premise): Some conscious experiences have physical effects.
2 (Premise): All physical effects are fully caused by purely physical causes.
3 (Premise): The physical effects of conscious experiences are not always overdetermined by distinct causes.
4 (From 1-3): Some conscious experiences are purely physical causes.
5 (Premise): If some conscious experiences are purely physical causes, then materialism is true.
6 (From 4 and 5): Materialism is true.
Evaluate the validity and soundness of this argument.
[Further reading: Papineau provides a very detailed discussion of the causal argument for materialism]
- Here is a reconstruction of the conceivability argument against materialism:
Zombies: creatures physically identical to us without conscious experiences.
1 (Premise) If zombies are logically possible, then materialism is false.
2 (Premise) If zombies are conceivable, then they are logically possible.
3 (Premise) Zombies are conceivable.
4 (From 1-3) Materialism is false.
Evaluate the validity and soundness of this argument.
[Further reading: Chalmers’s book The Conscious Mind, Chapters 3 and 4, is the best known presentation of the conceivability argument.]
- (Optional). Here is a reconstruction of the knowledge argument against materialism:
1 (Premise) There are truths about consciousness that are not deducible from physical truths.
2 (Premise) If there are truths about consciousness that are not deducible from physical truths, then materialism is false.
3 (From 1 and 2) Materialism is false.
Premise 1 is often motivated by Frank Jackson's ‘Mary’ thought experiment. Evaluate the validity and soundness of this argument.